It is a new trading year and 2013 will be hard to beat.

The S&P 500 was up 29.60%.
The NASDAQ was up 38.32%.(Fox Business News)
 
US consumer confidence rose in December.  The 78.1 reading is near the levels last seen in October just before the government shutdown.  (The Conference Board)

Manufacturing activity slowed in the mid-west for a second month to 59.1. The index is up considerably from the beginning of 2013 when it sat just below 50. (Institute for Supply Management)

New claims for unemployment came in at 339,000.  Down 2000 from last week.  

The S&P 500 is down 3 and the NASDAQ is down 10.

Oil is down 75 cents at $97.50 a barrel. GasBuddy analysts are predicting gas prices in the US will fall by about 10 cents a gallon in 2014 from the $3.50/gallon average in 2013.  If this happens it would be the lowest average annual gas prices since 2010 when it was $2.78 a gallon.

Gold is up $16 at $1218 a Troy ounce. Gold was down 28% in 2013 the most in 32 years.  That broke a streak of 12 straight years of price gains for the bling. (Bloomberg)

With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management a Registered Investment Advisor I am Troy Reinhart.